he works through long months and years on sky and lake, on tree and flower; and when complete, it represents to him more love and life, more hope and ambition, than the living child at his side, to whose conception and antenatal development not one soulful thought was ever given.  To this impressible period of human life, few parents give any thought; yet here we must begin to cultivate virtues that can alone redeem the world.

“The contradictory views in which woman is represented are as pitiful as varied.  While the Magnificat to the Virgin is chanted in all our cathedrals round the globe on each returning Sabbath day, and her motherhood extolled by her worshipers, maternity for the rest of womankind is referred to as a weakness, a disability, a curse, an evidence of woman’s divinely ordained subjection.  Yet surely the real woman should have some points of resemblance in character and position with the ideal one, whom poets, novelists, and artists portray.

“It is folly to talk of the sacredness of marriage and maternity, while the wife is practically regarded as an inferior, a subject, a slave.  Having decided that companionship and conscientious parenthood are the only true grounds for marriage, if the relation brings out the worst characteristics of each party, or if the home atmosphere is unwholesome for children, is not the very raison d’etre of the union wanting, and the marriage practically annulled?  It cannot be called a holy relation,—­no, not a desirable one,—­when love and mutual respect are wanting.  And let us bear in mind one other important fact:  the lack of sympathy and content in the parents indicates radical physical unsuitability, which results in badly organized offspring.  If, then, the real object of marriage is defeated, it is for the interest of the State, as well as the individual concerned, to see that all such pernicious unions be legally dissolved.  Inasmuch, then, as incompatibility of temper defeats the two great objects of marriage, it should be the primal cause for divorce.

“The true standpoint from which to view this question is individual sovereignty, individual happiness.  It is often said that the interests of society are paramount, and first to be considered.  This was the Roman idea, the Pagan idea, that the individual was made for the State.  The central idea of barbarism has ever been the family, the tribe, the nation—­never the individual.  But the great doctrine of Christianity is the right of individual conscience and judgment.  The reason it took such a hold on the hearts of the people was because it taught that the individual was primary; the State, the Church, society, the family, secondary.  However, a comprehensive view of any question of human interest, shows that the highest good and happiness of the individual and society lie in the same direction.

“The question of divorce, like marriage, should be settled, as to its most sacred